Quantum of the Seas 2 Night "Opening Cruise" Live - 1/12/20 - 3/12/20

[notmyrealnameoremail]

On 12/3/2020 at 1:48 AM, masteradept said:

Ah sorry, I missed out your other question, but as for specialty restaurants only Chops was open for lunch. The others were open around 5pm for dinner.

Thanks for posting, I know you worked hard to find the time to pass on so much information. It makes us feel good about being safe once cruises restart here in the US.

[atricks]

If you don't know, you can go into the Royal App on your phone and select "Get more details on ships we support" and select Quantum to get a view on what they have onboard for these sailings if you are curious.  It was very helpful to browse, especially for things like Adventure Ocean.

[CatsinShow]

4 hours ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Some of us just don’t like the formality of eating in the MDR. We haven’t been to the MDR for dinner in years. It would be very disappointing if only available food was MDR.  @Ocean Boy

 

M8

I was wondering this too for the future. I generally try to avoid the MDR for dinner because it typically takes awhile. When I do go for dinner, I try to be one of the last ones in since they want me to get out lol (fine with me). 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Thanks, thanks, thanks SO much for this excellent and informative live report! So appreciative of you taking the time to do it and it is so great to hear it was still a good experience. We only cruise once a year and we were supposed to be on Anthem right now. I’m feeling sadder than I even thought I would, but this definitely helped! Enjoy your upcoming cruises! 

[taznremmy]

@masteradept  Again, thank you for your very informative review.  Also, for those who haven't seen this, @masteradept also had an article published about his review on Cruise Critic.  Congratulations!!

Live Reports From First Royal Caribbean Singapore Cruise

Edited December 4, 2020 by taznremmy

[Bailey & Sophie]

8 hours ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

We are not interested in a ship (other than Oasis Class with CK) without WJ for dinner. Exception might be when sailing with friends as long as they don’t look at me eating dinner with long pants and collared shirt. Don’t do suits and ties anymore. 

 

Totally agree. I like the casual approach to the jammer for dinner. Depending on what we do, we might not be hungry at the same time each night. Or I just might want a great big salad for dinner. We like longer cruises, but after a while I just get tired of eating.

[MJSailors]

    While I was reading this live review, I had a thought that perhaps the enthusiastic reactions of posters here may be a bit premature.

    This Cruise was limited to residents of Singapore. Apparently the Covid-19 infection rate is minimal there and great efforts have been made to mitigate the spread of infection. It was wise for RCCL to initiate  these trial cruises from such a place as the chances of an outbreak on the ship would,most likely,  be nil or slight.

       The cruise was a two day cruise. Again,a good decision because,apparently, Covid symptoms appear several days after a person has been exposed to the disease. If any passenger did contract Covid, they would be off the ship before showing symptoms. There would be no ill passengers onboard,therefore avoiding shipboard situations such as was evidenced on the Diamond Princess at the beginning of the pandemic. Certainly, contact tracing would have been used if ,in fact,a passenger had developed Covid symptoms after disembarking Quantum of the Seas. However, passengers would have returned home and could get medical attention from their local medical providers rather than being cared for by the ship’s medical center.

        The passenger count was limited to thirty percent capacity. This allows for social distancing and uncrowned public venues on the ship because fewer than normal amounts of passengers would be in those venues at one time.

        Of course, Covid testing before the cruise was a requirement as well as wearing masks while onboard the ship. Other procedures such as being served food in the buffet and a virtual muster drill were designed to contain any possible spread of the virus.

       IMO, these experimental cruises do not reflect the familiar situations of main stream cruises leaving ports located in Florida, Seattle, LA, NYC or any other US port. If and when cruise ships return to these ports, the cruise experience will be very different. As seen in these Singapore cruises, there will be certain procedures 

and qualifications required of passengers. Pre-cruise testing,mandated mask wearing, reduced passenger capacity, food service changes, cabin category availability and curtailed onboard activities among other protocols would,most likely, be initiated by the various cruise lines to mitigate the possibility of a Covid spread on a ship.

       Considering the rise in Covid cases in the US and other countries over the past few weeks, it does seem that cruise vacations leaving from US ports are not going to be available for a very long time.

      As for my DH and I, we had a November 2020 cruise on Princess cancelled. We realized that it was going to be cancelled. Were we disappointed about that ?

Not really. We are trying to stay healthy. Being over 65 with some health issues, we have chosen to respect the virus. We have also come to realize that future cruises will not happen for us. That type of vacation has lost its’ appeal.

    We are hoping that we can take land vacations in the future and make trips to visit friends and loved ones. But first, this Covid  virus needs to be contained so we feel comfortable to travel about the country. We also hope that once this pandemic is finally mitigated,that another world-wide,deadly infection does not happen again.

 

 

        

       

[Missusdubbya]

Thank you, great review

[Noreen411]

Thank you for taking us along on your cruise.  

 

Stay safe and healthy

[bonsai3s]

Thank you for your wonderful review.  We love Singapore and we were looking forward to our cruise on the Quantum this coming March...until all our sailings were cancelled....Sigh.

Stay safe and healthy...genuinely hoping we can again sail out of Singapore.

[twangster]

21 hours ago, MJSailors said:

 IMO, these experimental cruises do not reflect the familiar situations of main stream cruises leaving ports located in Florida, Seattle, LA, NYC or any other US port. If and when cruise ships return to these ports, the cruise experience will be very different. As seen in these Singapore cruises, there will be certain procedures 

 

Not to mention that cruises to nowhere can't occur in the US.  This cruise didn't visit another country.  That won't be the case in the US when the first cruises set sail.

[Ourusualbeach]

16 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

Not to mention that cruises to nowhere can't occur in the US.  This cruise didn't visit another country.  That won't be the case in the US when the first cruises set sail.

Cruises to nowhere are not allowed due to the crew not having the correct visas and have nothing to do with visiting a foreign country. 
 

If Royal were to obtain the correct visas for the crew they could certainly happen.  
 

I would also think there could be a better possibility of getting an exemption for the visas than there would be for an exemption to the PVSA for the Canada / NE and Alaska cruises that could be in jeopardy depending on the Canadian government.  

[twangster]

44 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Cruises to nowhere are not allowed due to the crew not having the correct visas and have nothing to do with visiting a foreign country. 

 

Correct - a double whammy.  Singapore doesn't have this requirement and that is significant as the ship was in a bubble the whole time.  That will never be the case in the US.  As soon as you visit another country now you have two governments to satisfy and it greatly complicates it.  No one wants a thousand Americans arriving by ship right now. 

 

44 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

If Royal were to obtain the correct visas for the crew they could certainly happen.  

 

Beyond C-1/D visas which are relatively easy to obtain, obtaining employment based visas for the US generally involves requiring proof that no American can do the job.  Since virtually all cruise ships jobs can be done by Americans (just not cheaply) that's going to make getting thousands of employment visas pretty challenging.  Impossible really.

 

44 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I would also think there could be a better possibility of getting an exemption for the visas than there would be for an exemption to the PVSA for the Canada / NE and Alaska cruises that could be in jeopardy depending on the Canadian government.  

 

There are American companies with US crew using US flagged ships offering cruises, passenger services and moving cargo on these routes.  There won't be PVSA or Jones Act waivers.  Size doesn't matter.  Beyond matters of National Security only Congress can modify these acts.  No way Congress takes up this issue, opens the can of worms and rewrites law impacting the entire US passenger fleet which collectively contributes more to the US economy compared to the foreign cruise lines.  These acts are not cruise ship specific.  Any modification would take years of research and negotiations.  Simply not going to happen in 2021.

 

No Canada = No Alaska, No NE, No Hawaii cruises (except Pride eventually).  The small American cruise lines can do Alaska though, as soon as CLIA lets them (many have smaller ships under the CDC CSO limit).

 

Edited December 5, 2020 by twangster

[Chiliburn]

48 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

Correct - a double whammy.  Singapore doesn't have this requirement and that is significant as the ship was in a bubble the whole time.  That will never be the case in the US.  As soon as you visit another country now you have two governments to satisfy and it greatly complicates it.  No one wants a thousand Americans arriving by ship right now. 

 

 

Beyond C-1/D visas which are relatively easy to obtain, obtaining employment based visas for the US generally involves requiring proof that no American can do the job.  Since virtually all cruise ships jobs can be done by Americans (just not cheaply) that's going to make getting thousands of employment visas pretty challenging.  Impossible really.

 

 

There are American companies with US crew using US flagged ships offering cruises, passenger services and moving cargo on these routes.  There won't be PVSA or Jones Act waivers.  Size doesn't matter.  Beyond matters of National Security only Congress can modify these acts.  No way Congress takes up this issue, opens the can of worms and rewrites law impacting the entire US passenger fleet which collectively contributes more to the US economy compared to the foreign cruise lines.  These acts are not cruise ship specific.  Any modification would take years of research and negotiations.  Simply not going to happen in 2021.

 

No Canada = No Alaska, No NE, No Hawaii cruises (except Pride eventually).  The small American cruise lines can do Alaska though, as soon as CLIA lets them (many have smaller ships under the CDC CSO limit).

 

If a ship just went in to say Mexico and dropped the anchor for half hour.

Would that count?

If not I can’t see the USA having a cruise industry for a while.

[twangster]

7 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

If a ship just went in to say Mexico and dropped the anchor for half hour.

Would that count?

If not I can’t see the USA having a cruise industry for a while.

 

Back in the day some cruise lines tried to use Ensenada in this fashion for Hawaii cruises from the mainland.  Pull into port, wait a bit, then leave.  

 

There was a ruling that this approach was purely for the purposes of circumventing the PVSA and therefore found in violation of the PVSA.  Since then Hawaii cruises start or end in Canada.  With a foreign country at one end the PVSA is satisfied unless someone tries to do a B2B and stay on to a US destination on the consecutive cruise.  That too is a PVSA violation.  

 

The other component of the PVSA is the concept of near foreign port versus distant foreign port.  Mexico and Canada and near foreign ports.  Only the ABC islands and South America are considered distant foreign ports.  

Edited December 5, 2020 by twangster

[Chiliburn]

6 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

Back in the day some cruise lines tried to use Ensenada in this fashion for Hawaii cruises from the mainland.  Pull into port, wait a bit, then leave.  

 

There was a ruling that this approach was purely for the purposes of circumventing the PVSA and therefore found in violation of the PVSA.  Since then Hawaii cruises start or end in Canada.  With a foreign country at one end the PVSA is satisfied unless someone tries to do a B2B and stay on to a US destination on the consecutive cruise.  That too is a PVSA violation.  

 

The other component of the PVSA is the concept of near foreign port versus distant foreign port.  Mexico and Canada and near foreign ports.  Only the ABC islands and South America are considered distant foreign ports.  

We have a island of Queensland called Willis island and ships used to go there drop the anchor and it was classed as leaving the country.

But they don’t have to drop the anchor anymore,just a sail by.

 

In this day and age of free trade the PVSA seems out of place.

[toad455]

Is there another sailing immediately after this one for the Quantum? What's the duration of these "cruises to nowhere" sailings?

[Chiliburn]

5 minutes ago, toad455 said:

Is there another sailing immediately after this one for the Quantum? What's the duration of these "cruises to nowhere" sailings?

Singapore has just allowed January.

https://mbccs.com.sg/search-ship-result/

[twangster]

Just now, Chiliburn said:

In this day and age of free trade the PVSA seems out of place.

 

91 UN member countries and 80% of the world's coastlines are said to be covered by cabotage laws.  

 

Greece for example has some pretty strong cabotage laws to protect their extensive ferry industry.  

 

It's more apparent or obvious in the US due to the high volume of foreign cruise ships and it being the largest cruise market in the world.

 

Airlines are subject to cabotage laws as well.  Quantas can't fly to Los Angeles, pick up new passengers and transport them to Dallas for example.     American Airlines can't fly to Sydney, pick up new passengers and drop them in Melbourne.  

 

Australia has maritime cabotage laws as well.  Australia and New Zealand have worked out some exemptions to their respective cabotage laws for each other given the relationship between countries.   

[gatour]

I appreciate the OP posting this review.

 

I think of the Singapore cruises as a baby steps. Well not completely representative of the US, there are things that are transferable to US operations.

 

1.  How to enforce assigned boarding times.

2.  How to serve food in the Windjammer and other areas.

3.  Appropriate staffing levels for the various dining areas (Windjammer, MDR, specialty, etc

4.  General cleaning protocals around the ship.

 

With a bit more time, I can probably come up with a couple more things that RCCL has already learned and will learn from future Singapore cruises that are transferable to US operations

 

A couple of things that the OP didn't talk about was the Flowrider and the rock climbing wall, through no fault of his own.  I think it wasn't high on his priority list.  But what RCCL learns from these Singapore trial cruises would be useful for US operations

 

So saying carte blanch these Singapore cruises are transferrable to US operations is a bit much.

23 hours ago, MJSailors said:

IMO, these experimental cruises do not reflect the familiar situations of main stream cruises leaving ports located in Florida, Seattle, LA, NYC or any other US port. If and when cruise ships return to these ports, the cruise experience will be very different. As seen in these Singapore cruises, there will be certain procedures 

 

[Chiliburn]

8 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

91 UN member countries and 80% of the world's coastlines are said to be covered by cabotage laws.  

 

Greece for example has some pretty strong cabotage laws to protect their extensive ferry industry.  

 

It's more apparent or obvious in the US due to the high volume of foreign cruise ships and it being the largest cruise market in the world.

 

Airlines are subject to cabotage laws as well.  Quantas can't fly to Los Angeles, pick up new passengers and transport them to Dallas for example.     American Airlines can't fly to Sydney, pick up new passengers and drop them in Melbourne.  

 

Australia has maritime cabotage laws as well.  Australia and New Zealand have worked out some exemptions to their respective cabotage laws for each other given the relationship between countries.   

If we have a trials season or as it’s being called `ocean getaways’ the first half of next year.
‘This is probably something like we will have .
 

 

 

[gatour]

20 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

We have a island of Queensland called Willis island and ships used to go there drop the anchor and it was classed as leaving the country.

But they don’t to drop the anchor anymore,just a sail by.

 

In this day and age of free trade the PVSA seems out of place.

To further what twangster said.  It is just not the PVSA it is also the Jones Act.  While the PVSA is for passenger ship and the Jones Act is for cargo ships they are entwined.

 

One of the biggest defenders of the PVSA while he was alive was a Senator from Hawaii.  His local residents would be a very big benefactor of the repeal of the PVSA to allow more cruise lines to do Hawaii cruise with out having to from the West coast and back to the West coast or using a Canada port as an embarkation or disembarkation port.. 

 

Lets just say there was a certain cruise line that his campaigns were well funded.

[Ethanol95]

10 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

Singapore has just allowed January.

https://mbccs.com.sg/search-ship-result/

Not so much 'allowed' as it is reaffirming from the get go, the entire season probably has been allowed subject to cancellation from potential outbreaks onboard. MBCCS is probably, just routinely making the next month port calls visible to the public.

[biff-tannen]

11 hours ago, toad455 said:

Is there another sailing immediately after this one for the Quantum? What's the duration of these "cruises to nowhere" sailings?

 

AFAIK there are continuous sailings throughout Dec and Jan. I believe they are mostly 3N (departs MOndays, back Thursday morning) and 4N (depart Thurs, back early Mon) "nowhere" cruises , except some special dates like christmas, new year and chinese new year cruises where they are shorter duration cruises at higher prices. 

[Sail n Snow]

They are sailing the 3 and 4 night Itineraries until at least the end of March.  
 

They can only be viewed them from the Singapore website

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/sgp/en/cruises/?dates_maxDate=03%2F31%2F2021&dates_minDate=12%2F01%2F2020&departureCode_SIN=true&durationCode_2to5=true

Edited December 6, 2020 by Sail n Snow